Posted by TheSQLGuru on 04/16/07 21:30

I have used Data Junction, NEON (EDI/ETL tool from Sybase) and DTS/SSIS.
ETL tools in my experience, GUI or not, are NOT easy to master. They may be
easy to slap together a simple load. But once you get into more than that
it definitely takes time and study and 'practice' to become really
useful/productive with them. Which is why companies want to see a few years
experience.

--
TheSQLGuru
President
Indicium Resources, Inc.

<dba_222@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1176659255.762245.187960@n59g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> Dear Experts,
>
> I've worked with Oracle since 1995. I have gone
> very deep into many of the Oracle features, including
> sqlloader, and export/import. And I've done data
> modelling even longer.
>
>
> At the same time, I have done ETL since 1995.
> Although, at the Proc, and PLSQL, sqlloader, level.
> Map the data. Take data from the source, do any
> modifications/transformations that are required,
> and insert or update. Easy. The hard part is
> determining the mappings.
>
>
> But I have not been given the opportunity to
> work much with ETL tools such as:
> Informatica, DataStage, Ascential, Ab Initio
>
> The little bit of experience that I do have,
> showed that Informatica was -incredibly- easy to use.
> It's a GUI. It's SUPPOSED to be simple!!!
>
>
> I have missed out on a number of opportunities
> because I didn't have a few YEARS of experience
> with ETL tools. Which seems odd, because the
> tool looks like it requires a max of a week to learn!
>
>
> Just how difficult are these ETL tools to learn?
> Especially if you have already been working with
> Oracle, and doing data mappings and loads since 1995?
> I'm thinking that it can't be difficult at all.
>
> When you search for newsgroups, there are no newsgroups
> for these tools. Although the companies who make
> them, might have their own newsgroup.
>
>
> There are also not many books on these tools.
> If you search for books on Oracle, or SQL Server,
> you will find a lot of very big, and detailed
> books. But there is next to nothing specifically
> on the various ETL tools.
>
> Any certifications for any of these tools look
> to be much simpler than Oracle's.
>
>
> To me, the real issue is the mappings. If you
> come into a new environment, the data mappings
> are completely esoteric to those systems.
> No amount of experience with an ETL tool, or any
> tool, is going to tell you what the mappings should be.
>
>
> Questions:
> - Just how difficult are these ETL tools to learn
> for an experience Oracle pro like myself?
>
> - Other than a GUI, making everything simple to use,
> just what are the advantages of using ETL tools?
>
> - what built in functionality do ETL tools
> have, that can't be done in PLSQL?
>
>
> Thanks a lot!
>

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